Incumbent Northeast city Rep. Joe Molinar was trailing business owner Cynthia Boyar Trejo in early voting for Saturday’s runoff, jeopardizing his spot on the El Paso City Council.
Four City Council races on Saturday’s runoff ballot had clear-cut leaders in early voting who seemed almost certain to win their races. Turnout was very low Saturday, so most of the votes cast came in early voting.
Former city Rep. Lily Limón is headed back to City Council, where she served from 2013 to 2017. Three first-time members of council were elected in other runoffs.
The five City Council runoffs were necessary because no candidate won a majority of the votes in the Nov. 5 election.
In District 4, Trejo, 58, had 52% of the early vote, with 48% going to Molinar, 64, a retired police lieutenant who was elected to City Council in 2020.
Trejo is making her first run for elected office, and had not voted before this year since at least 2010. She said her busy business schedule and the negativity of politics kept her from voting.
In District 7, Limón, 74, was headed to victory over Chris Hernandez, 40, a political consultant and community organizer. Limón had 59% of the early vote to Hernandez’s 41%. Limón worked for nearly 30 years as an educator and administrator with the Ysleta Independent School District.
Limón said she was disappointed by the low turnout in the runoff but thanked her family, friends and supporters. She said she had clear priorities when taking office.
“You know that so many of the candidates, we all have pretty much the same kind of priorities – high taxes, the quality of our streets, public safety. I think it’ll be an excellent opportunity to bring those kinds of issues up right away and say, ‘What are we going to do about these issues?’” she said.
In District 1, former restaurant owner Alejandra “Ale” Chavez, 47, defeated Monica Reyes, 55, who is the executive director of student support services at Canutillo Independent School District.
Chavez was leading the early voting with 64% of the vote to 36% for Reyes, who is the daughter of former U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes.
In District 3, Deanna Maldonado-Rocha, 41, a capacity analyst, defeated Realtor Jose Rodriguez, 78, who had led a five-candidate field Nov. 5 despite not spending any money on his campaign.
In early voting, Maldonado-Rocha had 62% of the vote and Rodriguez 38%.
In District 5, Ivan Niño, 33, the chief of staff for outgoing city Rep. Isabel Salcido, defeated Amanda Cunningham, 40, a social services worker and consultant.
Niño had 62% in early voting to Cunningham’s 38%.
The new City Council, which will be led by Mayor-elect Renard Johnson, will take office the first week of January. City representatives are paid about $63,000 a year.
SEE ALSO: Renard Johnson elected El Paso mayor, easily defeating city Rep. Brian Kennedy
The City Council adopts an annual budget, sets a tax rate and makes policy decisions that impact economic development, public safety, streets and transportation and quality of life services such as libraries, museums and parks and recreation. The council also appoints a city manager, city attorney and city auditor.
Four City Council seats are typically up for election every two years, but six were on the November ballot this year because two representatives resigned mid-term to run for mayor – Brian Kennedy in District 1 and Salcido in District 5.
The District 2 seat was decided on Nov. 5 with the reelection of Josh Acevedo. He first took office in January after a special election to serve out one year left in the term of former city Rep. Alexsandra Annello, who resigned to run for state representative.
City Reps. Art Fierro in District 5 and Chris Canales in District 8 are up for reelection in 2026, along with the winners of Saturday’s District 1 and District 5 races.
Voters on Saturday also chose a judge for Municipal Court No. 4, one of six in the city, including a court of appeals. This is the only municipal judge race that went into a runoff.
The two judicial runoff candidates were locked in a tight race. Samuel Flores had 51% of the early vote to 49% for Lauren Ferris.
Flores, 38, is an attorney who has been in private practice for about 10 years. Ferris, 37, is an attorney who has been twice appointed to serve as a municipal judge.
The post Incumbent Joe Molinar trails in City Council runoff; former city Rep Lily Limón wins her race appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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